Chapter 1

Eowyn and Meriadoc were laid in beds in the houses of Healings, and they were tended well. The place that heals nearly everything, except for old age. But now their arts of healings were challenge, because they could not find a cure for the Black Shadow, for it came from the Nazgul. For who caught this illness will fell into an ever-deeper dream, and passed to silence and deadly cold, and soon they will die.

Ioreth, the eldest woman in the Houses of Healings, looked into the fair face of Faramir, the Steward of Gondor, and wept, for all the people loved him. And she said, "There was a time when the kings of Gondor ruled, they say! For an old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known."

Gandalf replied: " Many remembered those words, Ioreth. A king has indeed return. Haven't you heard?"

"There was lots of crying and shouting and I was busy tending the sick," She answered. "All I hope those murdering devils do not come to this House and trouble the sick."

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Aragorn came to the Houses of Healings with Eomer. He looked at the pale face of Eowyn and turned to Ioreth, "Have you Athelas?"

"I do not know for sure my lord," she answered. "At least not by that name. I will go and ask of the herb-master; he knows all the old names."

" It is also called Kingsfoil," said Aragorn; "and maybe you know it by that name, for the name was used by the country-folks."

"Well, if your lordship had named it at first I could have told you. No, we have none of it, I am sure about that. But we came upon it growing in the woods. I will go now and get it." Ioreth said.

"Go now, go as quick as your tongue and get me kingsfoil, if you want these people to get better." Aragorn demanded.

When Ioreth rode behind Gandalf on Shadowfax to the woods, Aragorn bade the other women to make the water hot. Then he took Eowyn's hand and laid the other upon the sick lady's brow. It was drenched with sweat, but Eowyn did not move. Aragorn said: " Here there is a grievous hurt and a heavy blow. Her shield-arm that was broken has been tended with skills, and it will mend in time, if she has the strength to live. But evil comes through the sword-arm, in that there now seems no life, although it is unbroken. But she was a brave and strong maiden, sterner than steel, being able to slay the Lord of the Nazgul, for he was favored by the dark lord. It was an evil doom that set her in his paths."

Then he added: " She is a fair maiden, fairest lady of the house of queens. And yet I know not how to speak about her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily, yet it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel. Or maybe a frost that had turned its sap to ice, where it stood, bitter-sweet, still fair to see, but doomed to fall and die?"

"You are blameless in this matter, Aragorn, yet I knew not that Eowyn, my sister, was touched by any frost, until she first looked on you for she had fallen in love with you. Care and dreaded she had, and all she shared with me." Said Eomer.

"My friend," said Legolas, "you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields, but she, born in the body of a maiden, had a spirit and courage equal of yours. Yet she waited upon an old man, whom she loved as a father, and watch him falling into darkness on the battlefield."

"Sorrow and pity have followed me ever since I left her desperate in Dunharrow and rode to the Paths of the Dead; and no fear upon that way was so present as the fear for what might befall her. And yet, Eomer, I say to you that she loves you more truly than me; for you she loves and knows; but in me she loves only a shadow and a thought: a hope of glory and great deeds, and lands far from the fields of Rohan."

And Aragorn added again: "I have, maybe, the power to heal her body, and to recall her from the dark valley. But to what she will awake: hope, or forgetfulness, or despair, I do not know. And if to despair, then she will die, unless other healing comes which I cannot bring. Alas! for her deeds have set her among the queens of great renown."

Then Aragorn stooped and looked into her face, it was indeed white as a lily, cold as frost, and hard as diamond. But he bent and kissed her on the brow, and called her softly:

"Eowyn, Daughter of Eomund, awake! For your enemy has passed away!"

The fair maiden did not stirred, she began breathing deeply. Aragorn crushed two leaves of athelas and cast them into steaming water; and he laved her brow with it, and her right arm lying cold and nerveless on the coverlet.

Eowyn opened her eyes and saw the fair face of Legolas, the concerned stare brought warmth to her body. She smiled at them and winked at her beloved brother, Eomer, with her clear grey eye. He then embraced her in his arm.

Ioreth gasped with excitement and recite a poem:

"When the black breath blows

and death's shadow grows

and all light pass,

come athelas! come athelas!

Life to the dying

In the king's hand lying!

Eowyn cried: " Tell me, dear brother, what of the Lord of the Mark?"

"He is dead," Eomer replied, "but he bade to you farewell, dearer than daughter. He lies now in great honour in the Citadel of Gondor."

"Oh! This is grievous!" she said. "And what of the king's esquire, the Halfling? Eomer, you shall make him a knight of the Riddermark, for he is valiant!"

"He lies nearby in this House, and dear sister, rest now, for you are weary."

Legolas looked at the fair shieldmaiden, and left her to rest, and whispered under his breath, "I will cure you of any illness, and I will free you from the cage, my love."

Author's note: Ok...I'll just go slowly to the point so you can enjoy the story wholly. And to Kiki, read on. The story may have a different ending. REVIEW!!